When Kash Smith joined the boys choir at Leo Catholic High School his first year at the South Side school, he expected an after-school activity and not a national spotlight. Four years later, that same choir would be performing under the bright lights of “America’s Got Talent,” reaching the top five finalists in the show’s 20th season.

Smith, a first-year music business major at Columbia, found out last spring that the 18-member choir would be flying to Pasadena, California, to audition for the show, an experience he described as “surreal.” 

“Part of me was like ‘I’m not going to believe it until I see it,’” Smith said. “I always knew that we were good and capable of big things, but I just didn’t expect that in my senior year of high school.”

Smith spent the first few weeks of his first semester at Columbia balancing school work, done remotely from California and performing on the show. Singing with his high school’s all-boys choir, the group made it to the show’s finale in late September, finishing in fourth place.

Columbia hosted a watch party at the Student Center to watch Smith and the choir perform.

“It felt incredible, one, because I already believed in them, and I definitely believe that they deserved this moment, and deserved to be on a platform of that magnitude,” said Yolanda Sandifer-Horton, who manages the choir. “And two, it was incredible to just watch their belief change.”

Originally hired as the coordinator of student engagement and community partnerships at the high school, Sandifer-Horton took on the additional role of managing the choir after hearing them sing at the first mass she attended.

“I found out that they were only doing about four or five different events a year, and I said ‘we have to give them more exposure,’” Sandifer-Horton said. “We have to get them out there, more people need to see them.”

As the season went on, Smith said every performance after the audition became more intense, with pressure to do better than their last.

“The judges are looking for you to step it up every act, they want you to bring something different from what they first saw,” he said. 

Despite the stress, Smith said receiving feedback kept the group’s motivation high, not only from their director and manager, but from producers of the show and even the judges. Smith said a piece of feedback from judge Mel B during their semi-final performance stuck with him through the tail end of their filming.

“You guys literally tear up my heart strings, because I can see how much this means to you,” Mel B said.

Prior to that performance, Smith shed tears backstage remembering his mother, who died when he was 11 years old. Smith said he used that, among other negativities in his life, as fuel to give their finale performance more passion than ever. As their last song, the choir sang “Hall of Fame” by The Script, which he described to be a “rebirth” of their first performance, giving the audience even more goosebumps than before.

“I feel like the song itself resonated with us so much,” he said. “It felt like a song that touched my heart. Standing in the hall of fame; that’s something I want to happen in real life. Being on that stage, seeing all the people cheering and waving for us, it boosts your confidence.”

The filming of the 20th season of AGT bled into the beginning of fall semester, which also happened to be Smith’s first at Columbia, a balance he said was “stressful.” However, he found his professors to be accommodating and supportive throughout his journey.

Micky York, a part-time instructor in the School of Business and Entrepreneurship who teaches Smith in his “Business of Music” course, used the experience to help inspire the rest of the class.

“It was super cool,” York said. “We watched the videos as a class, and it actually kind of led into some lessons for everyone else.” 

York said although Smith had to do work for the class remotely, he was happy to see him get experience in the industry, something he hopes for all of his students to have.

“I love that Columbia supports them in that way,” York said. “He was on TV, he’s performing, he’s doing what he wants in his career. So anytime anyone has something that really relates to the industry, then that experience is vital. At Columbia, we just have to support them for that.”

Smith attributed the journey and success of both his own career and the choir’s to the work ethic they put into their passion.

“I feel like it’s all based on the hard work and belief that you put into it,” he said. “Coming from Leo, I didn’t expect anything like that to happen. It was always just me, singing with heart.”

Copy edited by Mya DeJesus